LAKE ELSINORE 
Matt Jackson was pitching a “lights out” game for the Storm at The Diamond on Thursday night.

Then the lights did go out.

A panel of stadium lights in right field shut off with one out in the top of the seventh inning in a scoreless game against Modesto, forcing a suspension of the game. The game will be resumed at 4:05 p.m. today. The regularly scheduled game today is set for 6:05 p.m.

The unexpected power outage left the Storm players — and their manager — in the dark.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” Lake Elsinore manager said Shawn Wooten as he bolted from the locker room a few minutes after the game had been called. “There’s something serious going on here.”

Word spread quickly that the game had been suspended because of an apparent bomb threat inside the stadium. But Storm officials later denied there was any such threat.

“They told us to evacuate, and that’s what we’re doing,” Storm pitcher John Hussey said. “They told us to get out of the stadium.”

There was good reason for the players to believe that something was wrong. Riverside County Sheriff’s officers converged, and a police helicopter began circling the stadium.

“We were trying to figure it out as well as everybody else,” Hussey said. “Some of the guys were trying to take showers, and they told us to get out of the shower and just get out of here.”

The bomb threat turned out to be a false alarm. The actual cause of the suspension was partly precautionary because of Thirsty Thursday — a $1 beer promotion that runs through the seventh inning.

“Our electrician told us he couldn’t get it fixed,” Storm President Dave Oster said. “Here’s the problem: We can’t (have) all kinds of people, hanging out, drinking, doing all this stuff. So we had to kind of get them out.

“We didn’t want them to linger all night, so we had to make a quick decision.”

With the help of police and stadium personnel, fans were evacuated in a quick and orderly fashion.

“We felt that with the alcohol and the game going on and the safety of everything, we felt that this was the best decision to go about it,” Oster said. “We figured this way, there’d be less confusion and less people getting freaked out and stuff.”

Jackson stuck around long enough to lament the unexpected stoppage.

“I thought someone (might have) hit a fuse box inside the stadium,” said Jackson, who allowed only three hits and struck out five. “It’s frustrating because when you’re throwing well, you want to stay out there as long as you can.

“It was a good outing, but too bad we couldn’t finish the game. This is a first for me.”